The Hurt Fuse: An Arsenal injury update

Outside of death and taxes, there seems to be one other certainty in life - Arsenal will face an injury crisis at some point in their season. So far, Arsenal have only seen a handful of injuries in their 2018-2019 season, mostly to reserve players. Having had a major knee injury while playing soccer before, though, I can say with certainty that injuries suck, no matter their severity or who receives them. My similarities with Arsenal players stop there, but my point still remains.

So, which players are still out with injuries, have recently gotten hurt, or are rejoining the team for training? Let’s take a look.

Long-Term Injuries

Laurent Koscielny is still (understandably) sidelined after his late-season Achilles tear during last season’s Europa League semi-final at Atletico Madrid. However, he has already returned to light training and is set to resume full training in November. Whether he regains a role with the starters when he returns or takes an auxiliary role ala Per Mertesacker last season remains to be seen.

Short-Term Injuries

During last week’s home leg of the Europa League opener against FC Vorskla, Henrick Mkhitaryan suffered an ankle knock that kept him out of the weekend match against Everton. He is not expected to be available for the Carabao Cup match against Brentford, but should be available for selection against Watford this weekend.

Sokratis caused a minor panic among Arsenal fans when he was subbed off in the first half of the Everton match for Rob Holding with an apparent leg injury. Thankfully, he appears to have suffered only a minor dead leg, and, much like Mkhitaryan, should be set to return against Watford.

Speaking of injured Greek defenders, Dinos Mavropanos suffered a groin injury in training and is expected to be out of commission for four weeks.

Returning to Training

Both Sead Kolasinac (left knee) and Ainsley Maitland-Niles (right fibula) were injured in the first week of the Premier League and have consequently been out of commission since. Of the two, Kolasinac has returned to full training and is expected to be back on the pitch in the coming weeks. Despite initially being ruled out until November, AMN is also scheduled to be back to full training by early October.

Also joining the rest of the team on the training pitch following an ankle sprain is oft-injured defender Carl Jenkinson, who I can assure you is still indeed a member of the Arsenal football club.